To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed the entire object, paste this HTML in websiteTo link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed this page, paste this HTML in website

Mrs. Felton Speaks
She Makes a Sensational Speech Before Agricultural Society
Believes Lynching Should Prevail as Long as Defenseless Woman is Not Better
Protected.
[ J. A. Holman, Special to Atlanta Journal]
South Bend Hotel, Tybee, GA., August 12 The feature of the session yesterday afternoon was the
address by Mrs. W. H. Felton, of Bartow County, in which she discussed at length the public
questions of interest in Georgia at this time, and dwelt with particular emphasis on the lynching
problem. She reiterated her plea for co- education at the State University. Mrs. Felton spoke of
the necessity for the better education of farmers’ daughters as a protection from the assaulter, and
declared that instead of so much money being expended for foreign missions it might be used to
even better advantage in educating the heathen at home, even in Georgia.
I hear much of the millions sent abroad to Japan, China, India, Brazil and Mexico, but I
feel that the heathen at home are so close at hand and need so much that I must make a strong
effort to stop lynching, by keeping closer watch over the poor white girls on the secluded farms;
and if these poor maidens are destroyed in a land that their fathers died to save from the invader’s
foot, I say the shame lies with the survivors who fail to be protectors for the children of their dead
comrades.
I do not discount foreign missions. I simply say the heathens are destroyed in sight of
your opulence and magnificence and when your temples of justice are put to shame by the
lynchers’ rope. If your courthouses are shams and frauds and the law’s delay is the villain’s
bulwark, then I say let judgment begin at the house of God and redeem this country from the cloud
of shame that rests upon it.
When there is not enough religion in the pulpit to organize a crusade against sin; nor
justice in the courthouse to promptly punish crime; nor manhood enough in the nation to put a
sheltering arm about innocence and virtue – if it needs lynching to protect woman’s dearest
possession from the ravening human beasts – then I say lynch; a thousand times a week if
necessary.
The poor girl would choose any death in preference to such ignominy and outrage, and a
quick death is mercy to the rapist compared to the suffering of innocence and modesty in a land of
bibles and churches, where violence is becoming omnipotent except with the rich and powerful
before the law.
The crying need of women on the farms is security in their lives and in their homes.
Strong, able- bodied men have told me they stopped farming and moved to town because their
women folks were scared to death if left alone.
I say it is a disgrace in a free country when such things are a public reproach and the
best part of God’s creation are trembling and crying for protection in their own homes. And I say,
with due respect to all who listen to me, that so long as your politics takes the colored man into
your embraces on election day to control the vote; and so long as the politicians use liquor to
befuddle his understanding and make him think he is a man and brother when they propose to
defeat the opposition by honey- snuggling him at the polls, and so long as he is made familiar with
their dirty tricks in politics, so long will lynchings prevail, because the causes of it grow and
increase.
[ Mrs. Felton is one of the most distinguished women of Georgia, intellectually and
socially. She is the wife of Dr. W. H. Felton, a former Representative in Congress, and takes a
prominent part in everything pertaining to the advancement and protection of her sex. Editor
Star] 5
5 Morning Star, ( Wilmington), August 18, 26, 1898.

Mrs. Felton Speaks
She Makes a Sensational Speech Before Agricultural Society
Believes Lynching Should Prevail as Long as Defenseless Woman is Not Better
Protected.
[ J. A. Holman, Special to Atlanta Journal]
South Bend Hotel, Tybee, GA., August 12 The feature of the session yesterday afternoon was the
address by Mrs. W. H. Felton, of Bartow County, in which she discussed at length the public
questions of interest in Georgia at this time, and dwelt with particular emphasis on the lynching
problem. She reiterated her plea for co- education at the State University. Mrs. Felton spoke of
the necessity for the better education of farmers’ daughters as a protection from the assaulter, and
declared that instead of so much money being expended for foreign missions it might be used to
even better advantage in educating the heathen at home, even in Georgia.
I hear much of the millions sent abroad to Japan, China, India, Brazil and Mexico, but I
feel that the heathen at home are so close at hand and need so much that I must make a strong
effort to stop lynching, by keeping closer watch over the poor white girls on the secluded farms;
and if these poor maidens are destroyed in a land that their fathers died to save from the invader’s
foot, I say the shame lies with the survivors who fail to be protectors for the children of their dead
comrades.
I do not discount foreign missions. I simply say the heathens are destroyed in sight of
your opulence and magnificence and when your temples of justice are put to shame by the
lynchers’ rope. If your courthouses are shams and frauds and the law’s delay is the villain’s
bulwark, then I say let judgment begin at the house of God and redeem this country from the cloud
of shame that rests upon it.
When there is not enough religion in the pulpit to organize a crusade against sin; nor
justice in the courthouse to promptly punish crime; nor manhood enough in the nation to put a
sheltering arm about innocence and virtue – if it needs lynching to protect woman’s dearest
possession from the ravening human beasts – then I say lynch; a thousand times a week if
necessary.
The poor girl would choose any death in preference to such ignominy and outrage, and a
quick death is mercy to the rapist compared to the suffering of innocence and modesty in a land of
bibles and churches, where violence is becoming omnipotent except with the rich and powerful
before the law.
The crying need of women on the farms is security in their lives and in their homes.
Strong, able- bodied men have told me they stopped farming and moved to town because their
women folks were scared to death if left alone.
I say it is a disgrace in a free country when such things are a public reproach and the
best part of God’s creation are trembling and crying for protection in their own homes. And I say,
with due respect to all who listen to me, that so long as your politics takes the colored man into
your embraces on election day to control the vote; and so long as the politicians use liquor to
befuddle his understanding and make him think he is a man and brother when they propose to
defeat the opposition by honey- snuggling him at the polls, and so long as he is made familiar with
their dirty tricks in politics, so long will lynchings prevail, because the causes of it grow and
increase.
[ Mrs. Felton is one of the most distinguished women of Georgia, intellectually and
socially. She is the wife of Dr. W. H. Felton, a former Representative in Congress, and takes a
prominent part in everything pertaining to the advancement and protection of her sex. Editor
Star] 5
5 Morning Star, ( Wilmington), August 18, 26, 1898.